The career of German musician Volker Bertelmann can be difficult to define. Classically trained on piano at a young age, he spent his youth as a part of various rock, hip-hop and techno acts, before eventually beginning his solo career as Hauschka with 2004’s Substantial.
Under that guise he has released a string of albums that touch on elements to classical, ambient, orchestral as well as glitchy electronics. “I would describe my music as contemporary piano music,” Bertelmann explains, when pressed to try and pigeonhole his work. “I have my own tonality. But I feel the most comfortable in a kind of experimental space. If I feel there’s suddenly a sticker on my shoulder, like the ‘neoclassical’ sticker, I’m the first one who tries to shake that off.”
The one defining, mostly consistent element of Bertelmann’s music has been his use of prepared piano; the technique of modifying the instrument by placing objects on and around its strings to alter the tonality. It’s a technique he uses to blur the line between melodic and percussive sound.
Alongside his work as Hauschka, recent years have seen Bertelmann making waves of increasing size in the worlds of film and TV, culminating in recent BAFTA and Oscar wins for his expansive and emotive score to the anti-war epic which is set among the German lines at the end of World War 1.
